Documentary film on grade retention in Macau makes it to Al Jazeera

Macau’s Future Gamble,” a film by Penny Lam Kin Kuan, a Macau-born film director, has been selected and aired as part of Viewfinder, Al Jazeera’s documentary series. For one year, Penny Lam Kin Kuan documented the life of a local 18-year-old teenager who had already repeated a school year three times. Forty percent of 15-year-
olds are estimated to have repeated a school year at least once in Macau.
As Macau surpassed Las Vegas as the world’s biggest casino capital, many residents are earning almost three times the average salary compared to a decade ago, Penny Lam Kin Kuan states. Such encouraging statistics, however, made him reflect upon the reasons behind Macau’s higher grade retention rates.
“As well as being the world’s gambling capital, Macau also has one of the highest rates of student repeats in the world. Are these two figures connected?” – he asks.
Chi-on’s middle brother had dropped out of school to work in the hospitality industry. The director followed Chi-on for one academic year “to see if he could avoid the lure of the casino and overcome Macau’s complicated education system.”
The documentary was aired this week on Viewfinder and is available on the broadcaster’s website. Viewfinder is a project showcasing independent filmmaking talent from around the world.